Williamson thought he’d never swim again after a horrific injury. He just made another Australian team

Sam Short flirted with a world record and Kaylee McKeown sacrificed what loomed as a near-certain Commonwealth Games gold medal but it was Sam Williamson’s remarkable victory after a horrific knee injury last year that provided the feel-good story on the opening night of the Australian swimming trials in Sydney.

Just 13 months after rupturing his patellar tendon in a freak gym accident, Williamson won the men’s 100m breaststroke to secure selection for next month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Pan Pacific Championships in California before telling reporters with a big grin: “I’m f---ing back.”

After “seeing my knee halfway up my thigh” following a botched box jump, Williamson spent months learning to walk again. On Monday night, the 2024 world champion in the 50m breaststroke completed one of Australian swimming’s most stunning comebacks, touching the wall in 59.07 seconds, just outside his personal best of 58.80.

The 28-year-old admitted he did not truly believe a return to this level was possible until last week.

“I’ll probably go home and have a little cry tonight and just process it all,” Williamson said. “It’s a dream come true to be able to say I’m back. It just makes all those mornings where I wanted to throw in the towel worth it.

“I quite literally had to learn to walk again and then had to learn to swim again. Lying on the surgeon’s table, I didn’t think I was going to be back.

“Knowing that I was getting further and further behind with each day made just getting out of bed each morning an impossible task. Every single morning, I woke up and I wanted to throw in the towel but every single morning there was someone in the gym waiting for me.

“I genuinely thought it was going to be a career-ending injury.”

Making an Australian team is always special, as stars such as Short, McKeown, Lani Pallister and Mollie O’Callaghan would attest to again on Monday night. But Williamson’s return, given everything he has endured over the past year, was the talk of the pool deck.

“Mentally, it’s chalk and cheese to the person I was at 18 months ago,” Williamson said. “I think after that injury and everything that I’ve overcome, it’s nothing that’s going to knock me down now.”

In the first final of the six-day meet, 45 days out from the Commonwealth Games, Short seriously threatened the 400m freestyle world record that was lowered by Germany’s Lukas Märtens since last year.

The Australian was 0.22 seconds under world record pace at the halfway mark and still 0.01 seconds ahead with one lap remaining, before his arms and lungs began to really b